Happy Happy Happy Birthday Dad!

He loves motorcycles, open mic nights at the neighborhood mall, kung fu movies, photo ops (see above) great bargains and babies. My dad is truly one of a kind and it's his day today! I'm bummed that I can't be in Seattle to celebrate in person, but I'm sending lots of x's and o's from here. See you in a few days, Dad!

*And more posts about Dad: Dads are the Best // Lessons Learned from Dad

Weekend Vacation: Vancouver - Birthday Edition

My sister and I flew home this weekend to celebrate a few birthdays in Vancouver, BC...a true weekend vacation. My uncle John turned the big 6-0 and we celebrated in the traditional Con way: lots of food, lots of games, lots of singing and lots of laughs. Our decorating skills may not be the best (ah hem - Gooma's recycled balloons from another event!) but our average volume level and silliness (my Auntie Linda showing up dressed up as a pink poodle!) sure trumped the rowdy kareoke coming from the Chinese wedding in the neighboring banquet hall.

Here are some of my favorite moments from the night...besides the food. A separate post dedicated to that later!

Weekend Vacation - Birthday Edition

:: the set up crew ::

:: red velvet birthday cake ::


:: semi-photogenic panna cotta ::


:: the less cute plan B and people hiding behind trees, can you see them? ::

The 22nd was Jackie's big cross over to the mid-twenties. To celebrate the big occasion, we attempted to pull off a surprise gathering in the park. I'm going to preface this by saying that I am by no means a party or event planner. I barely go to enough of them as it is! But, I figured Jackie's big 2-5 was a grand enough occasion to pull my efforts together and make it special (yuck, I hate that word).

As you can see in photo #1, we were on the brink of pulling off an awesome little picnic complete with blankets, pillows and a golden canopy hung over a tree branch...staked into the ground with yarn and sticks. Perfect ambiance for a birthday surprise, right? Well, just as we were hanging up the sugar coated string lights, Mr. Buzz Kill Police man informed us that we weren't allowed to hang or attach anything to a city tree. Seriously!?  All the right ingredients for a sparkly, evening picnic in the park and we had to take it down. Offering some of our party sub didn't even make him budge! Plan B was just as fun...we laid out our party sub, mixed our sage and rosemary martinis & pimms cups, chilled the beers, stuck the sparkle lights in mason jars, tossed the summery salad and kissed the fabulous gold tent goodbye. A hectic change of plans, but I think we all had a great time nonetheless.

Jackie had a hunch that something was going on that night but was ecstatic about a work-related birthday surprise. Nothing could bring her down! I won't go into details, but it was the best gift of all :)

Thanks to everyone who came for the surprise, helped, and hung in there despite the dark and the cold! We'll do picnic party round 2 when it's a little warmer later on in the year. I regret not taking a big group photo (it was too dark by the time J arrived!) - we'll just have to reenact it another time.

:: Happy Birthday Jackie! ::

Happy Birthday, Leslie!!

Today is the day that my good friend, Leslie emerged from the womb (or did your mom have a C-section?) Well technically, if you're in Africa, yesterday was the day Leslie emerg- anyway...

For those of you who are reading along and don't already know, Leslie is the friend I always brag about, as if knowing her makes me a better person. She graduated college and instead of working for "the man", decided to follow her dream and join the Peace Corps. She's now living in a small village in Burkina Faso, Africa. She said good bye to the lifestyle that includes the frills and luxuries I exploit every day (ah hem, the contents of this here blog!), she re-learned french, makes her own soap, teaches the village kids how to read and hosts events to promote healthy lifestyles and safe sex. She somehow whips up gourmet quiche on her sand/stove and continues to amaze me the longer I know her!

Les is a true adventure seeker and inspires me to grab life by the balls (Jackie's phrase) and go for it!

Happy Happy Happy Happy Birthday Les!!

Jack-o-Lantern turns 24!

Jackie turned 24 in April. Is it safe to say that when you're 24, you've hit your mid twenties? Yikes.

Blair and I surprised her with a homemade birthday banner, KEY LIME CHEESECAKE (yep, you heard right. It was as good as it sounds and definitely worth a try.  Blair even bought a hand mixer for the occasion!), a Breville Juicer (since we're clearly 40 years old at heart), and a mini-get together w/friends.